Voices Carry
by TheAlexis
Summary: Bonnie Bennett returns to Mystic Falls after being away for four years with Klaus. Her absence has changed her into someone stronger, more daring, and dangerous. But Damon is convinced that she's the same girl she used to be when she was eighteen.


**Title: Voices Carry**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, Voices Carry by Candice (Accola), or Light Me Up by The Pretty Reckless.**

**Author's Note: The last thing I should be doing is starting another fanfic but this has been sitting in my computer for months now and I've been wondering whether or not I should upload it on here, but I've decided to anyway.**

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Chapter 1: Light Me Up

"_Does what I'm wearing seem to shock you?_

_Well, that's okay._

'_Cuz what I'm thinking about you is not okay._

_But I don't think I can be anything other than me."_

_The Pretty Reckless, "Light Me Up"_

Damon stares at them blankly. It's that moment where you're completely out of the scene, and being sucked into a whirlpool of your thoughts. Stefan's got Elena next to him. You can tell that they're head over heels in love. Elena twirls the newly-received engagement ring on her finger, giggling at something Stefan whispered into her ear. They're so crazy about each other and they're the perfect couple and happiness is just radiating off them. It makes Damon sick. He wishes that he never found out that Stefan was planning to propose.

And maybe, just maybe, he's a little bitter about the fact that Elena is supposed to be his. _We all know that 'a little' is a major understatement._

So before he knows it, he's at the Mystic Grill. It's a typical Friday night, with an exception of no people. The majority of the tables are cleared completely and there are only two women drunkenly laughing at the end of the bar. This leads his mind to remember why he's even here in the first place—to get wasted and possibly have a hook-up/bite. _It's sounding better and better each second. _

By now, it's sounding fucking amazing.

"Bourbon," he orders, exhaling deeply. The bartender nods his head once, shortly before transferring the golden-colored alcohol from the bottle to a glass and sliding the cup over the polished surface of the counter into Damon's reach. Damon takes it and downs its contents in one effortless drink. "Keep it coming. Another shot."

"Make that two," a voice chimes in.

The voice is familiar. It sounds awfully like someone he used to know, someone he used to believe in and have respect for. And it can't be because that person left just over four years ago and he's barely spoken to her since then.

Damon shakes his head before swiveling around on the bar stool to be face-to-face with _**her.**_She's almost unrecognizable. Her dark brunette hair is flat-ironed, hanging pin-straight below her shoulders; her opaque emerald eyes are brought out by dark eye makeup. A cunning smile is playing on her red lips.

"Witch," he greets informally, disguising his downright shock perfectly.

He's not fooling her.

"Missed me?" Bonnie inquires with a raise of an eyebrow. She takes a seat next to him, crossing one leg over the other.

"More like four of the most _peaceful _years of my entire existence." Bonnie scoffs at him, flipping her hair over her shoulder, effortlessly making it seem all sexy and supermodel-worthy. _That's not right, _Damon notes with a visible frown.

"You're a bad liar," she mutters not-so-softly under her breath. _Now who's lying? _

Damon takes the crystal bottle himself and pours the drink into the two shot glasses, sliding one down the bar, over to his left. She brings it up to her mouth and finishes it off in half a second. Maybe less. _Impressive._

"Ugh, I don't understand why your favorite drink is bourbon," she comments, attempting to shake the taste off her tongue. She's never been a liker of the whiskey. "I'm more of a champagne at parties, vodka at night fan."

"High maintenance, much?"

"Funny."

She's not missing a beat, nor is she even trying. Her snarky attitude seems to come so naturally and easily to her and that's not right. Not right at all. Bonnie Bennett is a sweet girl. Once innocent and not knowing her true strength. But that's not who she is anymore—her aura is darker and she's exerting confidence with every word.

She's different. She radiates self-assurance and strength and she looks happy with herself and who she is. Bonnie's dressed in a dark purple top that leaves just the right amount to the imagination, a leather jacket, and black lammé leggings tucked under her favorite pair of crocodile Steve Maddens. The Bonnie he used to know would be caught dead in an ensemble much like the one she is sporting right now.

This isn't her. This can't be her. None of this seems to ring true.

"So what's the deal_?_" he asks, cutting straight to the point—whatever the point is. She knits her defined eyebrows together in puzzlement, indicating to him that she doesn't follow and that she's waiting for an elucidation of some sort. "Why are you back, Witchy?" _Witchy? Are you seriously calling me that?_

"Stefan called me a few weeks ago. Told me he was gonna propose to Elena and said that he wanted me here for her or something. And I thought why the hell shouldn't I come back to the Falls—considering Klaus and I ended things a while back," she explains simply with a casual shrug added in.

"You," he takes a pause to take a sip out of his drink, "have hardly said two words to me since you left. And that was through text. Skype was available, y'know. What gives?"

"I was a little caught up in other things," she makes sure not to give into too many details, "but I can assure you that Elena, Caroline, Matt, and Stefan got the, '_I'm doing perfectly fine, what about you guys?_' phone calls—and sometimes these insanely extravagant care packages for Caroline—from me more than once. You just fell at the bottom of my list."

It's a rude thing to tell him. Duh. And Damon can so-easily put his hand around her throat at any minute now—_he's fighting the temptation to_ —but he wants to hear what she's got to say. She's starting to spark his interest. _Alert the reporters._

"I fell at the bottom of your list?"

"Aaaand maybe you happened to be the only one who realized that I wasn't in any danger with Klaus," she adds with a dismissal wave of her black-manicured hand. _Insignificant details._

Lies. If anything, Damon was the one person who cared the most—he knew that Klaus couldn't be any good for her—despite the fact that he wouldn't dare say it out loud. Well, whatever. She didn't give a shit about what he thought.

"So what were you 'caught up in'? We thought Klaus took you 'cuz he needed a witch." He puts a heavy emphasis on 'witch'. As usual. It amazes Bonnie how he's still as obnoxious as he's always been.

"He did. But somewhere along the line, conditions became different. He saved my life, helped me with my magic, and…he treated me nicely for a while. Showed me that there's more to life than this black-and-white, kill-or-be-killed one I used to live here—that there's some genuine beauty out there in this world. He showed me how to take the pen and control the lines," she explains, speaking in riddles. Klaus showed her how to do that as well.

Damon takes another swig out of his drink. _I'm gonna need a lot more than a couple drinks to get me through tonight, _he thinks. Bonnie brings the bottle of bourbon to her and begins to pour herself some more.

"You're telling me that he didn't torture you, threaten you, try to kill you?"

She sets the bottle down and purses her lips. Damon takes this action negatively, sensing a transformation in atmosphere.

"He was perfectly fine; you guys have it somewhat wrong. Klaus seemed like a total douche-y villain on the outside but that's only because his relationship with Mikael was sucky. He thought that just 'cuz his father didn't love him, no one else would…but he was sweet inside, he cared about me, he made me feel beautiful—"

"If you guys were such a…Chuck-and-Blair couple, why'd you end it?" _Does Damon watch Gossip Girl now?_

"He said we could have the rest of our lives together—he offered to turn me. And despite Klaus being all those things, he was still _Klaus. _He was dangerously over-protective, obsessive, and aggressive. _Ugh. _When he was angry, he was furious. And I couldn't really connect with him. _Understand _him. Vice-versa. When he said he could turn me, it didn't feel like he was doing it for me or for…love. It felt like he was doing it for himself. A desperate attempt to fill that empty hole in his heart." She feels a wave of sadness wash over her, but she doesn't let it get to her. Klaus taught her better than that. "It's not like he physically hurt me. And he taught me so much; made me into a better witch. A better person—the one I am now. I can't be mad at him. I just don't feel that way about him anymore. I don't know how he feels—I _never _knew how he felt."

It's not every day that Bonnie gets to tell her story. It makes her feel special.

She sinks down on the bar stool a little bit. Damon would feel guilty but he's Damon and he doesn't do guilty that well. He settles for another drink instead. He's just getting started—he doesn't even have a buzz going yet.

"Klaus let you go?" It's a question but it rolls of his tongue as a statement.

"He would've let me go over two years ago but I wanted to stay."

"So this is who Klaus turned you into," he says bitterly, gesturing to her leather-clad body.

She reminds him of a lot of people—but Bonnie Bennett is a name that is not on the list. She's got attitude like Katherine. Boldness like Rose. Determination and strength of mind like Lexi. And fierceness like Sage. Yet, she's all her own person.

"People change as time goes along, Damon. I thought that you_, _out of everyone in the world, would know that." _What's that supposed to mean? _"Well, whatever. I'm not here for you."

She gets her next shot ready and empties it in one clean sip, not wincing at the strong, burning traces the whiskey leaves behind on her tongue. She's clearly not drunk, but she **is**on her second or third shot of the night—for a tiny person like her, that's pretty impressive. Damon's wondering what else Klaus has showed her over the years._ Maybe how to stake a vampire. Probably not._ _Most likely things that involve some witchy-juju. _

"You make it seem like you are."

"I'm here for Elena and Stefan and whatever the hell kind of wedding they'll be holding in a seven or eight months," she points out matter-of-factly.

"And because Mr. Vampy-Wolf dumped your ass," he adds in a murmur. She shoots him a quick glare.

Trust Damon Salvatore to get on your nerves. Forever and always.

"Dick."

"_I know._" _You suck._

"Klaus was great to me, great _for _me. But that's the past—I don't wanna live in the past," she acknowledges with little to no regret in her tone. She clicks the roof of her mouth with her tongue nonchalantly.

The new Bonnie is hot, for the lack of a better word. The old Bonnie still beats her. It should be the other way around for Damon but it's not. He hates how nothing is going the way he wants it to today. Damon likes to get what he wants. _No way. _He's immature like that—but that's something everybody already knows like the back of their hand.

"You know what really owns up to that little statement of yours is a hookup." He does that eye-thing with her. "You know you want it, _Bonnie._" There's really no one who says her own name better than him.

His motivation for coming to the Grill was for a drink and someone to bring home. Alcohol and sex is his go-to combo_. _He really doesn't want to leave without it. Bonnie, on the other hand, quirks an eyebrow. _Ugh, Damon Salvatore is hitting on her. Gross._

"Definitely." He smirks. "But not with you." The smirk disappears.

With that, she stands up, runs a hand through her hair tiredly, and begins to leave. Just like that, leaving him speechless—and god knows it's a strange day when Damon is in a loss for words—for a moment. _If anyone can do it, it's Bonnie. _He's forgotten just how intimidating she can be; how, when it comes down to it, she's always his match.

"Hey Judgey," he calls, catching her gaze, "nice to have you back."

She tears her jade-colored eyes away from his, rolling them in the process, and swivels around a full one hundred-eighty degrees on her heel to exit the Mystic Grill. Damon watches her as she leaves and then tosses another shot down his throat.

Bonnie's changed. There's no denying that.

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"_Does what I'm saying seem to haunt you?_

_Well, that's okay._

'_Cuz what I'm saying about you is not okay._

_I've got it on my mind to change my ways._

_But I don't think I can be anything other than me."_

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**Author's Note: And there you have it! In this story, you're going to see a darker side of Bonnie. You'll get all your questions answered within the next few chapters. Sorry this chapter was so short.**

**Regarding Bonnie and Damon: I have most of the chapter done, but I've been having some major writer's block lately. I'll update as soon as I can.**

**I hope you liked this.(: **

**Leave a review with your thoughts.**

**-Alexis xx**


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